The Social Security Work Load on Processing Retirement Applications

[GailL1]

Last nite on CNN, host Laurie Coates interviewed DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES on this.

CNN 02/12/2025 - Laurie Coates interview (transcript) It is the very last interview of the nite so go to the end and scroll backwards until you see his name - DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES

I have found these other articles on it also -

MSN 02/11/2025 The ‘Limestone Mine’ Manually Processes Federal Retirement Paperwork Is Actually Real

from the MSN link: “The issue isn’t necessarily the mine itself, but the fact that core steps in the way retirement papers are processed are still done manually, requiring paper printouts, actual signatures, and tens of thousands of file cabinets stuffed with manila folders.“

.. . . Fahrenthold’s article describes in painstaking detail the multi-step procedures for intake, processing, and approval of retirement paperwork, which repeatedly uses real paper that has to be internally moved by the employees taking long walks through mostly empty caverns hundreds of feet below ground, then typing data into computers and printing out documents again. This leaves the federal retirement system only able to “run at the speed of human fingers and feet,” making federal retirees wait months before they can receive their full benefits.“

Read both of these accounts from this reporter. Actually, from this, I think they are doing a pretty good job of getting it done but WHY??? The task seems monumental to get it changed but I am hoping that it can get better.

WOW - I would like a tour.

Here is also a link to the Washington Post’s article from 2014 which is referenced in the interview:

Washington Post updated 03/22/2014 - Sinkhole of Bureaucracy